MicroBT was founded by Zuoxing Yang in 2016, a month after he left Bitmain in a compensation dispute. Yang had been a top designer of Bitmain's Antminer S9.[2]

Bitmain sued MicroBT in 2017 for patent infringement on an integrated circuit. Bitmain lost the suit and the court revoked Bitmain's patent finding that the design had already been in wide use.[3]

The company raised about $22 million from Chinese sources. It told Bloomberg in October 2018 that it was profitable in the first half of that year.[4] In September 2019, Yang told the New Era Mining Summit that it expected to have shipped 200,000 M20 Whatsminers, its latest design, by the end of the month.[5]

Chinese press sources reported in November 2019 that Yang had been arrested by Chinese police at the end of October in response to allegations of intellectual property theft. The Chinese press confirmed to CoinDesk that the arrest occurred amidst management turbulence at Bitmain.[6]

According to a December 15, 2019, Bloomberg report, local prosecutors in Shenzhen issued a statement on December 12 that Yang was suspected of embezzlement and that the investigation continued.[7]